Kent County Court Proceedings, 1648-1656.  9

  and do unanimously conclude that the material cause of the said Liber A
  Wilson his death was an intenmitting fever joined with the dropsy
  or scurvy, as commonly understood, and further that the stripes
  given him by his Master not long before his death were not material.”
  Wm. Fuller and eleven other JurorsThos. Hynson was Clerk of the County of Kent in 1652. [lot. 491

    At the August Term of the Court, 1652, Edward Coppedge was [fol. 50]
  found guilty of “living in —“ with Elizabeth Risby, before he
  was able to prove the death of her husband, Wm. Risby; and
  sentenced to pay 6oo lbs. of tobacco, and to remain in the sheriff's
  hands, until the execution of a bond, “that he company not with
  her nor come to have any familiarity with the aforesaid Elizabeth
  Risby.”
    At the same session of the Court, Elizabeth Risby was sentenced [lot. 51]
  to receive 15 lashes and to give bond for her good behavior.

    In the year 1652, Mark Benton “ petitioned against Robt. Vaughan [lot. 52]
  for order from the Court for his freedom, with come and clothes.”
  The Court decided in his favor.

    At the same session of the Court Capt. Robert Vaughan was
  fined 300 lbs. of tobacco, for insolent language to the Court.

    Thos. Ward, about the same time, was arrested upon “suspicion [lot. 54]
  of felony.” The case was referred to the next Court. In one of the
  depositions, it is stated, that a servant had run away, and upon
  being taken back, “Mistress Ward did whip her with a peach tree
  rod & after she had done, she took water and salt, and salted her,
  and when she was adoing the same the maid cried out, and desired
  her Mistress to use her like a Christian, and she replied and said:
  “Oh! ye you.” “Do you liken yourself like a Christian?”
  And also after that time, “She ran away several times.”
    The Jury found that the punishment given by Thos. Ward and [lot. 56]
  his wife was not the cause of the “maid's” death, but that it was
  “unreasonable considering her weak estate of body;” and the
  Court imposed a fine of 300 lbs. of tob. for the “unreasonable and
  unchristian-like punishment.”

    A second time, Capt. Robert Vaughan insulted the Court by
  using most “opprobious “ epithets, bending his “fist “ over the
  “heads” of the Judges and “swearing” at the Clerk as “he sat
  at table.” For this offence the Court imposed a fine of 6oo lbs. of
  Tob.

    Among the Proceedings of the November Court, 1652, is the
  following:
    “Whereas the Wife of Francis Hunt hath petitioned unto this
  Court for a Certificate unto the Provincial Court, that she was the